Annual Geography Bee Tests Students' Grasp of the Globe washingtonpost.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Old jigsaw puzzles entertain again tulsaworld.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Lou Piniella expects Chicago Cubs bullpen pieces to fit quickly Chicago Tribune Take a look at an interesting article we found.
May 05, 2009
It's not just about how U.S. students stack up in math and science compared with peers in India, China, Singapore and elsewhere.
It's also about how many children could find those places on a globe.
Such speculation is the driving force behind a bill called Teaching Geography is a Fundamental Act that would provide funds for teacher training, research and development of instructional materials.
I hope some of those “instructional materials” include the simple genius of the jigsaw puzzle.
Since London engraver and mapmaker John Spillsbury in 1767 created the first jigsaw puzzle to teach geography there's been no better teacher.
Spillsbury mounted one of his maps on a sheet of hardwood and cut around the borders of the countries with a fine-bladed jigsaw.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the popularity of jigsaw puzzles, now cardboard, grew to astonishing levels. With sales reaching about 10 million per week.
Puzzle enthusiasts could rent a puzzle from their local store, just as DVDs are rented today.
Meanwhile, there were puzzle parties among high society. They would pick up puzzles in the fall and spend all winter working on them.
Horses gamboling in the fields. Famous Mansions. Castles. A Rembrandt. Something to remind them they hadn't lost all their money in the stock market.
Famous British novelist Margaret Drabble, who’s managed to fit writing her memoirs and her fascination with jigsaw puzzles in one book, says the Duke and Duchess of Windsor first met over a jigsaw puzzle, called "whimsies.”
(Specially shaped pieces cut "on a whim.")
Which could account for his whimsical decision to give up the crown.
Drabble also deplores the fact that some U.S. manufactures have put the average time for completion on the box. She’d be happy to work at the same picture for months on end.
Most jigsaw enthusiasts know the most common approach to building a puzzle is to start by separating the edges from the inside pieces. Once the edges are built it can become easier to move to the center.
Technology has changed the landscape and we now have more sophisticated games.
But there’s still nothing that can teach patience (and geography) to children and adults (who don't know where anything is either) like a good 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Getting the right pieces to fit.
Sort of like life.
The Top Ten Most influential Video Games from the 1980's edugamesblog.word Take a look at an interesting article we found.
You are a Jigsaw Puzzles fan? jigkids.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The World's Largest Jigsaw Puzzle largestpuzzle.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Two of my favorites Jigsaw Puzzles & Geography.. I love doing Jigsaw Puzzles & my parents...
May. 05, 2009 11:38 AM
What's your favorite puzzle game?
31% 47% 0% 22% 0%
Maps and jigsaw puzzles: what a mashup! I vividly remember my discovery of each. As a kid I was attracted to the brightly colored and complicated shapes of 'maps' (The words were meaningless since I hadn't started school yet..). I asked my father to explain what this thing was, and he said, 'It's as if you were in an airplane and were looking down at the ground.' I 'got it' and instantly realized how absolutely cool these things were! I was hooked on maps from that instant on, and I have several shoe boxes of exotic maps I've picked up from all over the world (and a few bookstores, too). We won't even begin to go on about Mapquest, Google Maps, and -- my favorite -- Google Earth with Street Views, enabled!
The jigsaw 'thing' started about the same age (I think four or so...). Our next door neighbors, the Branks, had a musty garage with a dirt floor, permeated by the smell of motor oil, mold, and damp wood. On a shelf, which we could reach, were some boxes of jigsaw puzzles, damp and moldy, but in relatively good shape. We spent hours on the dirt floor with those smelly pieces, putting the shapes together.... it was heaven. I'm not sure of how many pieces the damp boxes held, but I think the easier ones held 250 pieces, and the hard ones were 500 pieces.
And our mashup... which I didn't really appreciate....A wooden 'map of the United States' with each state sawed out.... I had some unusual names... like 'Little Pennsylvania' -- aka Iowa. (Check the shapes of the two states, and you'll see where I came up with my nomenclature.) And I had no idea (and still don't) why two states had almost the same name: Kansas and Ark-kansas. And I got very frustrated at the two 'Square States' (Colorado and Wyoming), since their similar shapes made it hard to remember which was on the lower right and which went on the upper left. (At least Utah had a chimney to distinguish it!) And so I went on, learning the states....
Sometimes our lives are traced out by maps.... to this day, I can see maps in my head with 'The Fishhook', 'the Rock Pile', DaNang, Saigon, I-Corps, the Delta, and other such places neatly and clearly in place in my mind. Ask anyone under 40 about these names, and you'll get a blank stare... not so our generation. //// And I suspect my 'mental map' of Iraq is nowhere near as detailed as a lot of grunts' maps are today -- or will be 40 years from now!
Let's go ahead and get the joke out of the way- the people who were celebrating their victory over a jigsaw puzzle. The box said 3-5 years and they had done it in less than a month. One of the great charms of a jigsaw puzzle is that you can leave it for months or minutes and lose no time when you return.
Cuukoo- I may have found your boots. See yesterday's post...
wt, thank you! i'm still searching! i will find this piece to my puzzle. patience is a virtue.
for those who didn't get this the other day. it's a engineering composite, i think that qualifies as a puzzle.
<http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741>
http://www.jigzone.com/
doc, lately we need an ark in arkansas. da nang rain.
I don't generally have trouble getting the pieces to fit. My problem is I can only find 999 out of the 1000 pieces.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.488379,-75.908756&z=19&t=h&hl=en
thanx google earth
Cuukoo, there was a piece about this project (Stand by me) on NPR yesterday.
kewl...!
what was the piece on npr focused on?
Janet.... Your home??
Doc
yes.
"The Hierophant card affirms my alter ego is mandated to practice what I
preach as both a First Among Equals and Disciple to its network or
fold. Dual port-keys decode my superpowers to account and self-preserve, bound
to conform by faith or rights under equal protection, or resist to re-balance
high-handed architecture that's on the brink of collapse under its own culture,
hypocrisy and crossed virtues. Being in or out of the Barnyard Pageant sets a
line or oath between 'us' and 'them' but today's dose of theatrical humility,
passive climate or organized troubles lends credibility or continuity by
promoting rank and file image. By popular demand I bow to the master or am
compelled to honor a blueprint, uniform or code of common decency to get to the
top or bottom of it. Take me to your leader and I'm inclined to condescend to
acquiesce to a request, unless inconsistent with house rules."
as parts of the puzzled mind, such as mine, i like to throw in the tarot card of the day, it and the word of the day along with astrology signs. all information equal to plagiarism redesigned for the blank pages of unfilled puzzles. few have original ideas that haven't been formed from information programed from the enlightened!!!!
fish are rising, geese are bathing, and wood ducks roosting, owls flying with the great blue ignoring all, as the bald eagle soars above it all. pretty cool to watch for this blank page. (with no boots)
Cuukoo, two nights ago, instead of going to bed, I stood outside a friend's house and heard the question repeated again and again: "who, who who cooks for you?" but the cottontails still scramble before me and the anole puffs the red nickle at his chin. And it all goes round and round.
it does, it does! was there an answer, is my question? you do, you do, replied the cuckoo to the owl!
people in these parts like to name their places on the river, mine's (imagine this) the cuckoo's nest. the bird frequents the river. 20+ years ago i had a cypress bar made with all the bell's and whistles for my deck. it's still beautiful. the only thing, which has never been a problem, was the engraved name across the piece was read as cuukoo by the woodworkers. hence the name. just filling in the whole puzzle.
Two of my favorites Jigsaw Puzzles & Geography.. I love doing Jigsaw Puzzles & my parents were the ones to buy us a puzzle that was reversable the U.S. map on one side of the it & the world map on the other. Of course because its over 25 years old the world map part of it it out dated... I have recently taken out of storage so that I can put it together with my 4 yr old nephew.
more on the honor rollIt amazes me when the studies come out that say most graduating seniors cannot find their home state on a map let alone a country like Spain or France. It really scares me ~ if you do not know where you are in relation to the rest of the world, how are you going to function out in the real world?
This may strike conversation...you guys may run for the hills. But I have to get this out.
I felt as though I hit a shoal when I dragged the bottom across the discovery on the amount of money and time spent on jigsaw puzzles in the 30's Did this enhance or prolong the recovery. Germany and Japan could only cast a cloud over any independent introspective answer. As Peterman draws a parallel to today's video, I can at least find hope that videos are on a decline, but then find a new distraction in video games. Are they productive or a distraction? Distraction from what... true creativity...inventiveness. Solving the practical puzzles facing our youth's promise to prosper. As we leave the puzzle board for them to finish, I feel like our current stimulus bail out strategy is leaving them with a missing piece.
Over the past ten years the mentality of western/consumer mankind has degenerated to a mindset of spending your way out of trouble, akin to going to the store to purchasing another puzzle, to replace the one with the missing piece we haven't completed. The corollary word would be refinance...until you can't. And then look to your neighbor to bail you out. When that ends we look across boarders and then the scarcity discussion takes ominous truns. We have risen to a level of folly in partnership with our leaders. A follow on where history has already written too many chapters where the next steps lead to catastrophe. With the absence of the missing piece we are lacking the ultimate peace found when we chop our own wood carry our own water, and listen for the call of nature.
Stuck on a shoal...but not taking on water...SOS
i'll run straight to my shoal with a pole in hand! i'll take the fifth on politics. my value of such, lines them up as ....snake oil salesmen, religious leaders then comes politicians. give me a hand that has some calloused palms from work.
Here is an example, my own. I grew up on the west side of Detroit. We did the once a year the trip to Greenfield Vllage, where the era of American inventiveness is showcased in real life form. I remember walking through the 18th century house and looking at the writing desk and as an 11 year old saying, what a drag...how could you entertain yourself with that?!!!!
The I'd get how to an evening of TV.
It took raising childern of my own to attempt correcting this. We all know Americans suffer more in their ability to write than they do math and science. Speaking is not much better. The puzzle of words gives evidence of more than one missing piece. where my latest I harrang on this is we are now letting popular "music" replace words like "you" with "chou", while we point the bill of our caps to the side and squeeze our groin...a boy or girl gesture. I'd venture to say that Peterman is right when he says other subjects need to be promoted to balance out the mind of our youth. I look at what gets written here and find it a haven to much of the outside world I live in, which is the business of flying airplanes.
Cuukoo1
Please don't mis understand me...it aint politicians I fear. Remember its our own folly to put them there...and that goes to either party. Its our own folly to put curriculums as parents or schools in front of students that are not balanced, Its our own folly to take out a second mortgage to buy a boat....the fact that we look to our leaders is our folly as well.
i'm not sure which wonderful soul on here shared the following information, but for my grandson i purchased the "american boy's handy book. what to do and how to do it". the old one and the newer release. with the world, as i perceive it, changing, i thought information such as this, along with real tools, guns, hammers, saws, etc. would be something down the generational line that might come in handy.
a small puzzle for that generation. how to start a fire. perhaps.
anywho....checking out, ya'll have a great day, for me i'm actually pulling the ole fat boy out and my husband is pulling his heritage out, and us old tarts are going to ride our harleys through the country side.........woohoo.....!!!! that's my fat boys name !
Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 5, 2009
quaff \KWOFF; KWAFF\, verb:
1. To drink a beverage, esp. an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment.
2. To drink (a beverage) copiously and heartily
3. An act or instance of quaffing.
4. A beverage quaffed.
WT:
Are we witnessing, Alice In Wonderland Syndrome ... or just a lotta Good Whiskey ???
IJ- I am not sure I follow... I wish I could blame it on Whisky.... I was referring to the wise old owl ( Who Who...) and then got smart and tried to be lyrical about the nature in my front yard, but is that what you wondered about? Or is it some other kind of down the rabbit hole, mushroom eating, six things before Breakfast behavior that I have displayed? Anoles are the little green-to-brown lizards in these parts, better known ( erroneously) as chameleons. The mating display involves inflating a red thang on the front of the male's neck. To answer you, Cuukoo, about the NPR (Morning Edition) piece, they played a little of Stand by Me, but went out with A Change is Gonna Come (I Was Born By the River,) which is nice, indeed. I think it is the same N.Orleans guy who sings at the beginning of the video. The producer told the story of being somewhere and showing an iPod video to some guys he thougt were working for him. It seems they were actually local toughs, but were impressed enough to look out for him and his project people afterwards.
this just in... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HkXmOIwpkQ
Hilarious video WT! What brilliant creativity... Looks like some of the monks have been into the brandy.
Jalopkin...Considering all the rain, perhaps a brush with St Anthony...
Trask, wonderful video. Wondering how many hands some of those monks have.
I love jigsaw puzzles although I am terrible at them. I wonder what that means?
WILLIE TRASK:
Actually, the Syndrome I mention is a genuine condition, sometimes called, TODD's Syndrome .... and it deals with perceptions in the psyche and Spatial alterations ... BUT, I forgot how difficult it is to say anything, "Tongue-in-Cheek" in Text or E-Mail, and my attempt at gentle humorous prodding failed ... My apologies and I withdraw the comment ...
This is me ... stickin' with Moon Pies .......
Not sure where this is going to go but maps have been a large part of my life. My parents as long as I can remember have had a map of the world over their fireplace in the family room. It latest is probably a 1980's National Geographic, the USSR is still one place. Of course that also meant most of the boys out of the house and a chance to see Dennis and Pauline in Scotland and maybe visit Europe which they did a number of times.
My uncle who lives in the 1790's stone church has a number of maps up around, Oneida County, early US and a smaller world and a reproduction old globe. There is a common theme in the Hinge houses that you dont move that freely. My maps include trout streams of NY state and the Erie Canal, resting due to lack of wall space (we would hang all of our various pictures, paintings. framed posters and prints, but there isnt simply enough space, the bigger house may come yet.)
The maps were pure escapism. My dad had us sending post cards to the travel bureaus in the the travel section of the times when we were youngster. The Herters catalog provided us with everything we needed to be independant, kill it and cook it and make a wine to go with it. On the picnic table at the camp we had puzzles going too. Then glue them on a sheet of luan plywood and hang them on the wall.
Maybe we arent lacking in science and math as much as an interest to get up and go. Maybe we get too content to do anything. I dont think that of this bunch, but do think of others out there. A friend and I were discussing concerts we would see this summer, as some know I love my music and much and various music. The only confirmed concert is Crosby Still Nash and maybe Rikki Lee Jones and.... But a kid couldnt understand spending any money to see a concert, "you spend your money, waste your time and lose your hearing". I guess I am missing something. He is always complaining about how broke he is, but is building a monster car and drives some seriously big GMC trucks. I'll take my music and my travel.
Let me rephrase a little of that. We work with a draftsman who complains about everything. He cant understand going to a concert but loves his monster truck.
A good segue into Mother's Day. My mother is the most indefatigable and rapid solver of massive puzzles I have ever encountered. Their house had a large screened-in porch, and my father enlarged it and turned it into a room proper so as to accommodate her continuous habit. I suspect that if there were a four-acre puzzle made, she'd have at it, and complete it east of the sun, west of the moon, before the calendar turns another page.
I don't think her excellence at puzzle-assembly can be denominated in terms of persistence or even of challenge. Rather, I think she achieves the "flow" state so well described in the books of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmalyi. A state of solipsism ensues that filters sensations but also abates the so-called "monkey-mind" state the Buddhists strive to overcome. I honestly suspect that if she were ever EEG'd while puzzle-solving, one would see a plethora of theta waves.
My mother becomes similarly rapt when contemplating a clover patch. I have never once seen her fail to find a four-leafer. I grew up wondering if there was a sort of deificicency in conjuring that plagued me. I've never found a four-leaf clover.
Me, I love maps of beloved areas. I could freehand a very accurate cartograph of the whole of east Asia and of the Arab gulf. I can also look obliquely at LP's and CD's of classical music, and frequently identify accurately what has been recorded. But even under threat of waterboarding, and even given world and time enough, I have no aptitude whatsoever for puzzles.
We are giving the Bob Dylan/ Willie Nelson concert some serious thought.
Hello all - I'm very happy to report that our Olivia is doing well and resting comfortably after her surgery, today. Everyone's positive thoughts and best wishes have helped to see her through and she'll soon be back here, where she belongs; all of us being integral pieces of the puzzle that is the Eye.
KINDLEE:
Thanks for the Update .......
Kindlee, Please send her my get well soon wishes.
Thanks Kindlee, tell her we want her back.
Swaim, I would take you to a Dead show if there were any left, then home to eat omlettes and do puzzles.
Mark, my mother was also a great lover of jigsaw puzzles. I spent many hours helping her. This gave us girls a chance to talk. Sadly, her declining state will no longer permit her to puzzle.
Our daughter was born 7 weeks prematurely, at 3 lbs 7 ounces. Miraculously, she went home at 4 lbs 10 ounces after only 2 weeks in the hospital. Her only issue seems to be some minor visual- spatial issues. Even though the problem is not severe, it vexes her greatly at times. She has difficulty keeping figures lined up on a paper properly and is bringing home A's and B's in everything but Geography. The poor kid cannot tell one country from another on a map if they are too close in shape etc. She also has great difficulty with puzzles. She has trouble fitting pegs into the proper holes during testing. We also have her put the answers in test booklets instead of filling in the bubbles on answer sheets.Her Dr. told her he is very proud of her. She has to work twice as hard as her friends in school to get those A's and B's.(The public schools are crappy here and we send her to the local private school....college prep) She cried when she brought her Geography grade home yesterday.( D+)
Thanks, Kindlee, for the word about Olivia.... Based on previous experience, she'll be dragging tomorrow, and by Thursday bored out of her gourd ;-) . AND since Olivia is Olivia, I'd LOVE to see how she upsets the ward by simply being her outrageous self.... (If there gurney races down the hallway by the end of the week, expect her to be the one who organized the event and the lady shooting the starting gun!)
since it is the 5 th of May....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnnbrmOeKt0
IJ, You are right again, about how tricky irony and sarcasm are in the tiny print of the computer screen. Didn't know about Spatial troubles. I'll just checked out Todd's on Wikipedia. I understand there is a great line in Monsters Vs Aliens where the girl-woman grows to super-size and says "Everything got smaller." Do you mean that I am not actually larger than life? Darn. Maybe that AIWS is what the Office Gal had- I would blame my own girth on others' perceptions, but the tape measure is cruel in its honesty..... . . . . . . . . I am the worst example of people not spending their money sensibly, Hinge. I keep thinking of the dog who just wants his leash to be three inches longer, regardless of how long it is. If I had the available discretionary income that I spend on interest, I would have concerts AND monster trucks. Instead, well, I have my friends and the gratitude of several bankers whose jobs are secure thanks to my credit cards. .. .. .. .. Thanks JS for the Dylan. I have been watching NO DIRECTION HOME a little at a time. So far, pretty good, indeed. , , , , , , , , Hey to Olivia- by the time you read this, it will be too late to be a Sweet Patient. But I am sure you will be a fun one.
Um, that would be I just checked out...
Thanks WT, and I think Janet is Right, gotta be alla Rain .......
I've been away, and shall some more, missing y'all, but peeped in to see what everyone's doing -- and learned Olivia's had surgery -- warm wishes, O, I didn't know, and hope you're recovering well. Then I saw a perfect poem by WT; all it needs is a different shape on the page. Buyt I knew he's a poet at heart.
Mark Swaim's fascinating tale of his mother's activity puts me in mind of a like (I think...) experience that's long puzzled me and has nothing at all to do with jigsaw puzzles. The Medical College of Georgia here often seeks volunteers for studies, and I took part in one wherein a psychologist sat in front of a tv camera talking to the volunteer who was in another room, alone, watching said television transmission. I first tried cheerfully to go along, but his task, apparently, was to put into my head images HE supposed would induce calm, but none of which did: He'd say, for example, "You're lying in the sun on a beach..." or any of a gazillion other scenarios. His images are supposed to make the volunteer relax one muscle group at a time, and ultimately tell him what color she sees in her brain, but it wasn't working for me. The technique is very familiar to me from years of yoga and a bit of meditation, let alone simply pondering, but I likely ruined someone's thesis by stopping him (politely, of course) and saying, "I'm afraid I'm not doing what you want, but can't help it because your images are getting in my way. Could I just relax, without your words?" He wriggled a bit, consulted someone off-camera, said, "That's fine." So I set about what I'd done a thousand times...time passed...he asked, "What color do you see?" I: "White." He called to his off-camera colleague, "She sees white! White" Colleague appears, they consult hurriedly, and psychologist A says "Do you know that only about one per cent of people achieve white?" No, I didn't; I'd never thought of 'achieving' white, or any color, for that matter.
Intriguing. And he didn't tell me if 'achieving white' is bad, good, or neither. A puzzle of a different design....